Alternatives to thread for thin bodies on dries

[Sylvaneous]

I'm making some 16-18's for out west where my friend who is a resident insists on thin bodies. He uses thread, which is fine. It works. that's why he uses it.

Oustide of quill bodies, which I've had enough experience with, I'm thinking about using something like spanflex or silicone 'silli-legz' type stuff.

It seems to take and hold Pentone colors well, so I can get pretty close to the PMD paleness (which looks a lot like a light cahil to me. Never saw much green in PMD's)

Has anyone wrapped elastic material around a hook for a dry fly body?

SYl

 

[tomgamber]

i would imagine that it doesn't float well. With practice you should be able to dub a body with better shape and float than silicone. I lived and fished primarily dries out west for 5 years and great success with bodies a lot of people would not consider thin. But, me, I wold still just use quills or dubbing. If for no other reason than practicality. just my 2 cents

 

[dryflyguy]

Most quill bodies use stripped peacock or goose biot strands.
They look nice, but are kinda fragile.
And often start unraveling after a fish or two.

There are what's called synthetic quill materials out there.
Not sure what they're made of now - been a long time since I've used them - but they are more durable.
However, I didn't care for the way they looked.

Personally, for flies #18 and smaller, I usually just wind thread bodies.
No problem with floatation. But I still use hackle on all my patterns

 

[drakeking412]

the synthetics arent much good for small patterns, theyre kinda bulky and will stretch some but then break. the quills are your best bet and doing the warm water trick can help if theyre breaking a lot, i usually use a loose back wrap into some tighter ones and that works well. a thin dubbed body is pretty quick and easy though and seems to float the best

 

[PennKev]

Sylvaneous wrote:
Has anyone wrapped elastic material around a hook for a dry fly body?
SYl

There's Veevus Body Quill which produces a nice effect, but it is also sort of fragile. It's not a quill so much as it is a multi-strand synthetic thread. The body quill can be made more durable by counter wrapping with clear mono thread. There are several nice colors and different effects can be had by changing tying thread color as the material is translucent.

 

[PennKev]

drakeking412 wrote:
a thin dubbed body is pretty quick and easy though and seems to float the best

Yeah, and probably the least effort for best end result, a fly that fishes well and catches fish.

 

[falcon]

thread or biots

 

[turkey]

Strange coincidence on the timing of this but Don Bastian used a Spandex based material. He makes some important distinctions in the description. I've purchased the Spanflex material that he states doesn't float but I use it on low riding emerger-type patterns.

From Mr. Bastian's site,

"Some years ago, like ten, after Barry Beck told me in a conversation that the Orvis Flexi-Floss floats, as compared to Wapsi Spanflex that sinks, and being latex, rots after a few years, I began using the Flexi-Floss, a spandex product made by DuPont, for a smooth, quill-body substitute in a number of mayfly dry fly patterns. I figured it was a great substitute for natural quill materials, due to its ease of use and wide range of colors. Indeed, it is. Barry also told me you can split the material, using a bodkin. I have tied small drys with this material, down to #22 Blue-wing Olive patterns using this technique. As I tied more patterns with this material, I also learned that it is very translucent, even the darker colors. It is very much susceptible to changing of shading depending on what color of thread is used underneath. For example, the tan Flexi-Floss makes a great female or Light Hendrickson pattern when wrapped over the pink 8/0 Uni-Thread. The same color of Flexi-Floss makes a great body for the Male Hendrickson when wound over Danville’s Flymaster 6/0 No. 47 Tobacco Brown. I had quill-bodied – made with Flexi-Floss Comparaduns and Thorax Dun Female Hendrickson patterns on display this past show season, and people at the shows went ga-ga over them. How did I get that beautiful pinkish-tan color? Yup. Tan Flexi-Floss wound over the pink thread. Hence, there is an almost unlimited range of possibilities for colors of may fly bodies when using this DuPont product.

Recapping somewhat, of my March Brown Spinners post of a year ago, this brings me to a pet peeve of fly tying merchandisers. They don’t do this intentionally I’m sure, but a number of companies, marketed this product, made by DuPont, each using their own company name. Flexi-Floss, Super Floss, Dyna-Floss, Floss-Flex, and Super-Floss, from Orvis, Cascade Crest, and Montana Fly Company to name a few. Is this confusing to fly tiers? Uh, yeah. I can’t tell you which local fly shop has this product. But here is a link to Montana Fly Company – they still display it on their 2013 product list in eighteen colors: http://www.montanafly.com/mfc_tyingmaterials/sexi_floss.html

The MFC amber is what I would use for sulphur orange."

 

[Bamboozle]

I always make very thin bodes on my regular sized flies. I also tie Tricos down to 24, Olives down to 22 and midges smaller than that, all with dubbed bodies and never use anything but Super Fine Dubbing or Kreinik Silk Dubbing which is really fine stuff and great for the tiniest flies.

The trick is to pull a small tuft of fibers through the Ziploc on the bag, pinch it between your thumb and forefinger and pull what you need (which is VERY LITTLE), from that. Don't worry if you tear and break the fibers while you are pinching & pulling. Both of these materials have long fibers. Breaking those fibers helps to shorten them which means less dubbing.

Twist dub and spin the dubbing in the opposite direction than you wrap your thread. So for a right-handed tyer, twist the fur clockwise on the thread as seen from the top of the hook. When you do that, the dubbing will gain a 1/2 twist with your thread with each wrap around the hook making the body even tighter.

Applying a good tacky wax like the new Overton's Wonder Wax or BT's Tacky or Super Tacky to the thread helps too.

 

[afishinado]

Bamboozle wrote:
I always make very thin bodes on my regular sized flies. I also tie Tricos down to 24, Olives down to 22 and midges smaller than that, all with dubbed bodies and never use anything but Super Fine Dubbing or Kreinik Silk Dubbing which is really fine stuff and great for the tiniest flies.

The trick is to pull a small tuft of fibers through the Ziploc on the bag, pinch it between your thumb and forefinger and pull what you need (which is VERY LITTLE), from that. Don't worry if you tear and break the fibers while you are pinching & pulling. Both of these materials have long fibers. Breaking those fibers helps to shorten them which means less dubbing.

Twist dub and spin the dubbing in the opposite direction than you wrap your thread. So for a right-handed tyer, twist the fur clockwise on the thread as seen from the top of the hook. When you do that, the dubbing will gain a 1/2 twist with your thread with each wrap around the hook making the body even tighter.

Applying a good tacky wax like the new Overton's Wonder Wax or BT's Tacky or Super Tacky to the thread helps too.

+1 ^ good advice for dubbing. I do pretty much the same.

I use all these, depending on the pattern, to achieve thin bodies on my flies:

Thread, superfine dubbing, and sometimes stripped quills or biots.

 

[troutbert]

Bamboozle wrote:
I always make very thin bodes on my regular sized flies. I also tie Tricos down to 24, Olives down to 22 and midges smaller than that, all with dubbed bodies and never use anything but Super Fine Dubbing or Kreinik Silk Dubbing which is really fine stuff and great for the tiniest flies.

The trick is to pull a small tuft of fibers through the Ziploc on the bag, pinch it between your thumb and forefinger and pull what you need (which is VERY LITTLE), from that. Don't worry if you tear and break the fibers while you are pinching & pulling. Both of these materials have long fibers. Breaking those fibers helps to shorten them which means less dubbing.

Twist dub and spin the dubbing in the opposite direction than you wrap your thread. So for a right-handed tyer, twist the fur clockwise on the thread as seen from the top of the hook. When you do that, the dubbing will gain a 1/2 twist with your thread with each wrap around the hook making the body even tighter.

Applying a good tacky wax like the new Overton's Wonder Wax or BT's Tacky or Super Tacky to the thread helps too.

Overton's Wonder Wax is back!

My tube I bought in the 1970s still has plenty left.

Good product.

 

[Bamboozle]

troutbert wrote:

Overton's Wonder Wax is back!

My tube I bought in the 1970s still has plenty left.

Good product.

I bought some of the "new" stuff to compare it to my 1980's vintage tube which is still about 80% full.

I don't remember what it was like back in 1980, but the old stuff looks definitely different from the new and I still use the old over the new so maybe it gets better with age.

I doubt I'll be around in 40 years to do a more accurate side by side analysis and if I am, I probably won't remember what the 'NEW" stuff was like in 2021 but regardless, I'm set with Overton's.

;-)

 

[LongLineRelease]

Lookup Hareline hollow stretch tubing. This stuff can be stretched way out to make the body thinner. The stretch can be adjusted to build a tapper or vary the fly size. The micro size can do thin midge bodies just fine. Added benefits are a translucent , segmented body and some trapped air to help float. Do not confuse this with v rib or d rib, which are solid.

 

[nfrechet]

try uni stretch